[Richard Misenhimer] My name is Richard Misenhimer.
Today is February 11th, 2003.
I am interviewing Mr. Chris L.
Walker at his home at 401 Wendt Orange Grove,
Texas, Zip code 78372.
His mailing address is P. O.
Box 896, Orange Grove, Texas.
His phone number is area code 361-384-2072.
This interview is in support of
the National Museum of the Pacific
War Center for Civic War studies,
for the preservation historic
information related to World War II.
Chris, I want to thank you for taking
time today to do this interview.
Let me start by asking you, where were you born?
[Chris Walker] Ranger, Texas.
[Richard Misenhimer] Ranger, Texas. What is your birthday?
[Chris Walker] March 16th, 24.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay. Did you have brothers and sisters?
[Chris Walker] I had two older sisters and
a younger sister and two younger brothers.
[Richard Misenhimer] Were either your brothers in the service?
[Chris Walker] Yes. My brother, just younger than myself was in
the Navy during the World War II and
my other brother was in the Korean conflict.
[Richard Misenhimer] Did both of them come home?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, my younger brother was in the Air Force.
He never saw action,
but my other brother was on an aircraft carrier.
[Richard Misenhimer] Was he in the Pacific then?
[Chris Walker] Pacific.
[Richard Misenhimer] World War II?
Which carrier was he on, do you recall?
[Chris Walker] I think it was a CVE 70,
is one of the smaller ones.
[Richard Misenhimer] They escort carrier to column.
Where did you go to school?
[Chris Walker] Borger high school? I mean, Borger.
[Richard Misenhimer] What year did you graduate from high school?
[Chris Walker] At 41.
[Richard Misenhimer] Forty one. In May, I assume?
[Chris Walker] May the 28th. (laughing)
[Richard Misenhimer] Then when did you go into the service?
[Chris Walker] I went in January the 9th, 43.
[Richard Misenhimer] Forty three. Then from
high school till the then, what did you do?
[Chris Walker] Worked at army camp. Building the army camps,
one at Wichita Falls and one at Abilene, Camp Barkeley.
[Richard Misenhimer] Merchant construction there.
On December 7th,
41, of course Japans attack Pearl Harbor.
Do you recall where you were when you heard
about that and what reaction you had?
[Chris Walker] Yeah. I was in the service station getting gasoline.
[Richard Misenhimer] In a star station getting gasoline.
[Chris Walker] At Borger.
[Richard Misenhimer] Someone there announced it happened?
What was your reaction when you heard that?
[Chris Walker] Well, I thought we'd go over
like everybody else and take
our battle wagons over there
and cut them off about three inches underground,
(laughing) but they got our battle wagons.
[Richard Misenhimer] Yeah.
[Chris Walker] We thought it was awful at that time.
We didn't know the seriousness of it.
[Richard Misenhimer] Then when you went
into 40 feet did you volunteer? (crosstalk).
[Chris Walker] I volunteered.
[Richard Misenhimer] You were 19 at that point?
[Chris Walker] Almost. (crosstalk).
[Richard Misenhimer] Eighteen. You we're 18 almost 19.
Which branch did you go into?
[Chris Walker] Marine Corps.
[Richard Misenhimer] How did you choose the Marine Corps?
[Chris Walker] I don't know why. I guess called along to fight.
[Richard Misenhimer] Then where does it go in at?
[Chris Walker] Abilene.
[Richard Misenhimer] Abilene. How long were you at Abilene then?
[Chris Walker] We left the next morning.
[Richard Misenhimer] Where did you go to?
[Chris Walker] Dallas, Sworn in Dallas.
[Richard Misenhimer] Sworn in Dallas.
[Chris Walker] Picked up 22 other men and went to San Diego.
[Richard Misenhimer] How did you get to San Diego?
[Chris Walker] On a Pullman.
[Richard Misenhimer] Pullman. (crosstalk) (laughing) At a sleep in?
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] How long was that trip?
[Chris Walker] I think it's about three days.
[Richard Misenhimer] Which base in San Diego,
California mainly did you go to?
[Chris Walker] The Marine Corps boot camp at San Diego.
[Richard Misenhimer] San Diego. How were conditions in that boot camp?
[Chris Walker] We lived good.
[Richard Misenhimer] What did you live in there?
[Chris Walker] We lived in point nuts.
[Richard Misenhimer] How was the food?
[Chris Walker] It was good.
[Richard Misenhimer] What else did your boot camp consist of?
[Chris Walker] Mostly was close order drill.
Coast close order drill.
[Richard Misenhimer] Physical training?
[Chris Walker] Physical well, that was all included (laughing).
Physical training, a mental training,
and getting us ready psychologically and physically.
[Richard Misenhimer] Go to the infiltration course?
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] The fire, the live ammunition over your head?
[Chris Walker] Yeah. That was quite a thrill too.
(laughing) I got to see
those tracers running around everywhere.
They really were. We went through that twice, I think.
[Richard Misenhimer] How long was that boot camp?
[Chris Walker] I believe it was 13 weeks.
We went (noise) so many weeks
and then went to Camp Matthews,
I believe it was or a rifle range was we were there
three weeks and then came back for
two more weeks and then graduated.
We snapped in two weeks and then we fired
a week and then for
four days and then we fired for record.
[Richard Misenhimer] What did you get,
marksman or what did you get?
[Chris Walker] Sharpshooter.
[Richard Misenhimer] Sharpshooter. What are weapons that you train on?
[Chris Walker] I just had the M1.
[Richard Misenhimer] No machine guns?
[Chris Walker] Not a boot camp.
[Richard Misenhimer] Grenades?
[Chris Walker] All week threw a few grenades,
but they were dummies.
[Richard Misenhimer] Now, did your boot camp ever had a name or a number?
[Chris Walker] I went to Platoon 26?
I believe it's 26.
[Richard Misenhimer] Platoon 26. When you finish there then where did you go?
[Chris Walker] I went to Camp Pendleton,
Ocean Side, California.
It was a brand new camp.
I was the first 100 men there. I watched it grow.
[Richard Misenhimer] (laughing) What did you live in there?
[Chris Walker] I lived in the barracks.
[Richard Misenhimer] Brand new?
[Chris Walker] Brand new barrack.
[Richard Misenhimer] What you do there at Camp Pendleton?
[Chris Walker] I was in maintenance,
either did carpenter or
oversaw the civilian carpenters maintenance.
[Richard Misenhimer] Was that because of your civilian experience?
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] What rank did you have then?
[Chris Walker] I just had a PFC.
[Richard Misenhimer] PFC? You recall what the pay was when you first went in?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, $50.
[Richard Misenhimer] What was it as a PFC, what did you get?
[Chris Walker] Well, I don't know 50,
67 (crosstalk) a little bit more.
[Richard Misenhimer] How long were you there?
[Chris Walker] About 18 months.
[Richard Misenhimer] Eighteen months. Working in construction all that time?
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] Were you at a particularly outfit at that point?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, we were called post troopers maintenance.
[Richard Misenhimer] Post strippers?
[Chris Walker] Troopers.
[Richard Misenhimer] Troopers. Post troopers maintenance.
[Chris Walker] I was calling the bad name among the marine.
(laughing) Sarcastic name.
[Richard Misenhimer] What were some of the experiences
you had while you were doing that?
(background) Any experiences you
remember when you were there?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, startling experience I had,
I had to go through the general
and I had two-star general.
We had the civilian workers and you didn't cross them.
You weren't supposed to say anything,
harsh tone, you weren't supposed to.
You're just supposed to treat them really nice and we had
one little boy there that was real obnoxious.
He was really obnoxious and he irritated everybody.
He was about 26,
27 years old, married, no kids.
I think the only reason why he was there was that he had
that government job could be
me essential and they couldn't draft him.
We were on the job,
bunch of us and he was around and something was said
and he made the remark
while he wasn't stupid enough to get in service.
He's going to keep this job and stay out.
I don't know why that hit me wrong,
but it just did and I just flew all over him.
I told him how to carry
the cabbage and I told him right quick I did.
(laughing) That was all that was said,
he went off to work and that's what I had to do.
When I came in at dinner,
Marine Gunnar, charge of the carpenter shop,
he said, Chris, the general wants to see you
at 1:30 full uniform, dress uniform.
Yes, sir. I went down there to see him.
I'd been in 4, 6, 7,
8 months then,
but I'd never been before a general.
(laughing) I went down there and sometime after 1:30,
I was called into his office
and standing there attention
like you would before a general.
He just said, "Son,
sit down" and so I sat down.
He said, "I hear you had some trouble with a civilian".
I said, "Yes, sir, I did."
He said, "What did he say to you?"
Then he said, "What did you say to him?"
I told him the best I could.
He said, "What did he say to you before that?"
I told him that old man
jumped straight up out of that chair,
he hit the floor.
He hit the floor of custody and he went on a rampage.
I didn't know what kind of rampage he went on.
The longer he went,
the scared I'd gotten and finally,
he came over and looked me straight down and he
said that he better not do that again.
(laughing) He said, "I'll have him in the service
in less than 24 hours."
He said that'll be all and I turned to go out,
and he said, "Son,
" I turn around, "Yes, sir."
He said, "If he does that again,
hit him right between the eyes as hard as you can."
(laughing) That man became the nicest man around.
He became one of the closest of
my friends of the civilian workers.
When I came home for furlough,
he was the first one to offer me
a gasoline stamp so I could get around when I got home.
That's the only time I'd ever been caught,
well, a time or two other.
But no, that's
the only time I'd ever been called before.
[Richard Misenhimer] Let me back up to one thing in
boot camp, let me ask you a question.
[Chris Walker] Okay.
[Richard Misenhimer] Your grilling instructors,
do they wear these smoky bear hats?
[Chris Walker] Yes, sir.
[Richard Misenhimer] Were they as mean as we see them in
the movies and that sort of stuff?
[Chris Walker] One of them was.
The main DI,
he was a platoon sergeant.
(noise) He was a little man.
We call the little men in
the Marine Corps, federal merchants.
Why? I don't know but he was a federal merchant.
But he'd get right in
your face and he'd tell you just how it was.
I met him once after boot camp and
he was quite a regular guy.
(laughing) But he was mean,
he outranked any other DI in boot camp at that time.
We didn't get any medial work,
we went to work detail once or
twice but we got the best work details.
His main saying was we're going to be the best.
We were the best platoons.
I remember one of his favorite sayings
whenever he was talking about
shooting people on guard duty.
He said if you ever have to shoot anybody,
be sure they're damn dead.
I don't know how dead that was.
(laughing) But he'd say be sure that they're
dead, damn dead.
Then you've only got one question,
one person that count at that court martial.
That was his favorite saying
but he'd get right in your face.
He never did anything illegal.
The other two, one of
them was a sergeant and the other one was a corporal.
The corporal had just come back from
being on the Lexington when it went down.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay. Had the others been in combat?
[Chris Walker] I think the sergeant had.
(noise) I think he had been on
Okinawa because he took us out and was
teaching and we went out the edge of the water and made
a run at the beach and was
supposed to fall down and dig a foxhole.
After about two or three tries,
while he throws his hat down and passed around it two,
three times and get up and said that's useless,
this is pure useless.
That first meat you hit,
you know how to dig a foxhole when you hit
it. Did I say Okinawa?
[Richard Misenhimer] Yeah.
[Chris Walker] He was probably going to Okinawa.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay.
[Chris Walker] Because I was in Okinawa later, like I said.
Because tar will happen
while I was in service Marshall Islands.
I guess it was Okinawa.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okinawa.
[Chris Walker] Yeah, it was.
[Richard Misenhimer] Because you went in,
you told me in January of '43 here.
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] The actual fighting on Guadalcanal
didn't end until February of '43.
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay. You and your
general had just had your conversation.
[Chris Walker] Yeah, in boot-camp. I don't
know boot camp but just the same thing day in, day out.
Rain or shine or whatnot.
We didn't have any snow there,
pretty decent weather that time of the year.
I don't think the monsoon rains had set in,
they usually set in last March or April there.
We had pretty fair weather,
it didn't seem to bother any of us.
[Richard Misenhimer] Let me ask another question. When you went
before the general in a full dressed uniform,
what did this uniform consist of?
[Chris Walker] My greens.
[Richard Misenhimer] Your greens? Did you ever get the blues?
[Chris Walker] No, I never did. They stopped the blues
before I got out
but I've got a picture in a set of blues.
My daddy had a set of blues.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay.
[Chris Walker] He was in the army.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay.
[Chris Walker] When he was in the army,
there was only 13,000 men in the US Army.
They issued dress blues and the only difference between
their dress blues and
the Marine Corps dress blues was
the buttons and the insignias.
[Richard Misenhimer] They had the red stripe down the side?
[Chris Walker] Yes.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay. Of course,
most times, you wore dungarees; is that right?
[Chris Walker] Yeah. Most of the time, yeah.
(noise) I think there to the last one,
we went on liberty, we got to (inaudible).
I don't know whether
we ever went on and got to go liberty in our khakis.
I think every time we went on liberty,
it had to be dress blue.
I mean, dress green.
[Richard Misenhimer] Did you get any leave any time (inaudible)?
[Chris Walker] I got 14 days after been in almost about 17 months.
I was in a very essential job.
(laughing) Usually, you didn't get
the furloughs until you was ready to ship
overseas and then you got a two-week furlough.
I was one of the first in that company,
that maintenance company, to get furlough.
I don't know why they didn't give it to us but that's it.
They said they couldn't get
along without us but they
did. They sent the soldiers in. (laughing)
[Richard Misenhimer] Then you were about 18 months
in this construction type work?
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] Then what happened? Well,
anything funny along the way.
Recall any comical or humorous things
along the way now up to this point?
[Chris Walker] No, I had it pretty well-made
because when I was sent out to do
a job using service, you know how it was.
[Richard Misenhimer] Sure.
[Chris Walker] He had to go by the order.
When you get around doing
some work around the mess hall or something,
every time they send out a daughter,
they always have something a little bit more.
I finally got wise to
decide that I could get a whole lot out of
that extra work and there were five mess halls there,
one for (inaudible) mess hall and get whatever I want.
Pies, cakes, stakes,
whatever we wanted and yeah,
I had it made just for when I went overseas.
(laughing) I was really getting to work, I had it made.
[Richard Misenhimer] Now, all the people working under you were the Marines,
right? Were they civilians?
[Chris Walker] They were civilians.
[Richard Misenhimer] Civilians.
[Chris Walker] I had some Marines working.
Well, we were working together.
[Richard Misenhimer] But as far as your work crew, they were civilians?
[Chris Walker] They were civilians. Yes, sir.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay.
[Chris Walker] All civilians.
[Richard Misenhimer] Did you have to do KP or guard duty?
[Chris Walker] I never pulled a day of KP in my life.
Being in that maintenance deal,
we didn't pull any guard duty or KP.
[Richard Misenhimer] How about in boot camp?
[Chris Walker] No, I didn't pull any boot camp or guard duty or KP.
Usually, after you got out of boot camp,
you usually pulled a month of KPs.
But going to that maintenance company,
(noise) I just lucked out there.
The maintenance company had
their regular cooks and things.
[Richard Misenhimer] Military cooks or civilian cooks?
[Chris Walker] Military cooks, it was all military.
The Command in the battalion,
first battalion, he went overseas with me.
But he's no boy,
he started out in 33 as a private and he worked up.
But anyhow, he got over.
We got over on the side battalion and he
had to go to the head during the night.
Head's a bathroom.
[Richard Misenhimer] Yeah.
[Chris Walker] He went down there and some recruit challenged him.
Back then, we went in cycles, cars, cities, states.
I guess it's that way with y'all too.
If you got challenged, I mean,
you said who goes there.
He said if it's in cities you said Orange Grove.
Repeat. You repeated another city,
you didn't say the same one.
Colonel said he went down there and he got
aggravated because he had to get up and
go to bathroom (inaudible).
Then that's where the guard stopped
him and (inaudible) not very many but there were a few.
They called him and said cities.
He said, "Who goes there?" He named a city.
He said, "Repeat,"
and he gave the same city and he said,
"Repeat." He said (inaudible).
I said what I
said before the loudness so he could hear me.
He said, "I heard the boat on that M1 slide back."
I heard of an old boy say,
"Ask him one more time and if he
says the same thing, I'm going to shoot you."
(laughing) He'd have to know the Colonel, he was GI.
GI's all everything but he's
after the Congressional Medal of Honor.
He said I named our favorite city in
there for 10 minutes.
(laughing) Then I had to go up there and show myself.
He said, "Then that kid recognized me," and he said,
"Then I had to apologize." (laughing)
[Richard Misenhimer] What was his name,
that Colonel.
[Chris Walker] Oh, I don't think anything right now.
(laughing) He told a whole lot of funny things,
the old man did, but he always told them on himself.
He'd been a paramarine.
[Richard Misenhimer] Been a what a?
[Chris Walker] Paramarine.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay, a Paratrooper.
[Chris Walker] They disbanded that,
they found that the Holland weren't big
enough for (laughing) (inaudible).
He was a rough individual.
[Richard Misenhimer] Let's go back to your construction then.
You wound up there, and when
did you leave there, and where did you go?
[Chris Walker] I went overseas.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay.
[Chris Walker] I went home on furlough,
I got a furlough.
(noise) Came home,
Pauline and I got engaged to be married,
and I decided that I had
the best thing in the world up until then,
about every two or three months,
I went and asked for a transfer to a combat unit,
turned down and come back.
Now had I access to all the dining halls,
anything I wanted to eat, I had it made.
So I just decided
that I'd spend the rest of the war there.
I think it's less than three weeks
after I decided that I was going to board the ship.
(laughing) They took a waste.
[Richard Misenhimer] Where did you embark from?
[Chris Walker] San Diego.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay. What ship did you go on?
[Chris Walker] USS Goshen.
[Richard Misenhimer] What ship was that?
[Chris Walker] APA-28, it was a transport ship.
[Richard Misenhimer] APA-28, okay.
You went from there to where?
[Chris Walker] Well, we traveled alone to Pearl Harbor.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay.
[Chris Walker] Got to Pearl Harbor one night,
left out the next morning,
but in a convoy.
We went from there to the Marshall Islands and spent
two weeks at the Marshall Islands
waiting for the moon to get dark.
Then we went to Saipan.
We waited that long because
every time the moon was full,
the Japanese bombed every other
night at Saipan and Tinian.
We unloaded part of the ship and
troops on Saipan and the rest of us went over to Tinian.
[Richard Misenhimer] When did you leave San Diego?
[Chris Walker] (noise) It must have been in May.
[Richard Misenhimer] May of 44?
[Chris Walker] Forty-four.
[Richard Misenhimer] The invasion of Saipan was in June or July of 44?
[Chris Walker] August 10.
[Richard Misenhimer] June of 44 is when the fighting started in Saipan.
[Chris Walker] Then in August 10.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay. July 21st, fighting started on Guam.
[Chris Walker] July when?
[Richard Misenhimer] July 21st.
[Chris Walker] If they're going to Saipan,
Tinian and Guam,
they took Saipan and then went back
over and took Tinian, I believe. (noise)
[Richard Misenhimer] Then Guam.
[Chris Walker] Then another outfit, they took Guam
[Richard Misenhimer] Yeah. Okay.
[Chris Walker] I believe it was the second and the
fourth on Saipan and Tinian.
I don't know what was on in Guam,
seemed like first and,
I've been just the first because the fifth,
the fifth went in (inaudible).
[Richard Misenhimer] I don't have down here which,
maybe I should get that on here,
which units went in there.
Anyway, you landed on Saipan,
probably on August of 44?
[Chris Walker] Well, I never did get off ship
there, we were just docked there.
[Richard Misenhimer] Your dock there? Then you went to Tinian?
[Chris Walker] (noise) Then went to Tinian.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay. It just been secured not long before that?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, it hadn't been secured long.
[Richard Misenhimer] There were still Japanese running around?
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] What did you do on Tinian?
[Chris Walker] Well, trying to training for combat,
I was a company carpenter.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay.
[Chris Walker] (inaudible) carpenter.
[Richard Misenhimer] What rank did you have now?
[Chris Walker] I still had PFC here.
Didn't make copro until got over in Saipan.
We stayed in Tinian for a while.
First Battalion stayed on Tinian,
and the rest of the second division went back to Saipan.
[Richard Misenhimer] Now when you left oversees,
then you were assigned to second division, right?
[Chris Walker] Assigned second division.
[Richard Misenhimer] Completed the eighth regiment, you told me?
[Chris Walker] Eighth regiment, first battalion.
Headquarters company.
[Richard Misenhimer] Headquarters company.
Anything else you recall about your time on
Saipan, I mean, Tinian, I'm sorry?
[Chris Walker] Yeah. I remember as I told about this whole Colonel.
He was a go getter.
He was GI,
but he was a go getter.
He load a few of us up on
a couple of big old trucks, of course,
Marine Corps had the biggest trucks in the fleet,
and we went down to an Army dump,
and he was a colonel.
[Richard Misenhimer] Full bird?
[Chris Walker] I believe it's full bird. Yeah, he's a full bird.
He put the big old eagles on
and got in the front
of that truck and drove right down to
this big old army dump and right
past the guards and everything just like he owned it,
and backed up to a couple of big
old refers ice boxes, refrigerator.
We'd load them on that thing.
[Richard Misenhimer] Load the refers up?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, we just loaded up on
those two trucks and took off.
Nobody halt him, question him,
Colonel right in the front, who's going to.
We got up there and then in the process,
we got a hold of a bunch of
some paint and some parachute silk.
When we got the iceboxes all set up,
we stopped our training,
and for about three or four or five days,
all we did, that whole battalion,
was to cut squares of that parachute silk,
about three or four feet square.
A bunch of us did that,
someone took orange paint
and painted the stents of a big old red circle,
orange circle, in the center, I think.
(noise) We hung them out to dry.
You never saw our made Japanese flag flying around.
(laughing) After everything was drying ready,
he got two of his trucks again
and he went down with a bunch of friends.
Every time he'd found out which ships was going home.
he'd start trading our
authentic (laughing) captured Japanese flags for food.
(laughing) All those ice boxes,
I don't know how big they were,
they were as big as this room.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay.
[Chris Walker] We loaded up a enough fresh food,
eggs that you could break,
(laughing) meat, and staff vegetables.
They had a whole lot of vegetables cause
the Merchant Marines ate better than anybody else,
they had better food.
But he loaded that thing up with food,
and we took it back and we begun to eat like kings.
Every time we would get low on food, well,
(laughing) we'd go down
and get some parachute silk and we'd make flags.
(laughing)
We ate good (laughing) until they transferred us
over to Saipan and then we got back on battle (laughing)
[Richard Misenhimer] Now on Tinian, you'd jog about in
the countryside into the caves and all out there.
[Chris Walker] Yeah. Maybe, daily.
[Richard Misenhimer] I'm sorry.
[Chris Walker] We made daily excursions.
[Richard Misenhimer] Patrols out there.
[Chris Walker] Sit a little while and (noise)
Rota was about halfway between Saipan and Guam.
There was a little island about a mile,
maybe not that far off from the southern tip of Tinian.
Rida, I don't know what the name that was now,
but we didn't bother that little island.
Those Japs would filtrate over there.
We had a navy hospital
there that they were keeping open and
we should watch around it overnight,
we'd care about the Japs coming over and filtering.
(inaudible) We scared them
(inaudible) they were just stealing.
But they were coming over from the whole island.
We used to catch them from time to time
[Richard Misenhimer] Did you ever have to shoot them or anything?
[Chris Walker] No.
[Richard Misenhimer] I have heard that everyone
thought we would throw artillery on that island.
[Chris Walker] That was Rota,
between Saipan and Tinian.
[Richard Misenhimer] (inaudible).
[Chris Walker] I didn't hear about that.
It was just, because they were Japs.
[Richard Misenhimer] They were (inaudible) come over for food,.
[Chris Walker] I think all of them came over
for food and other supplies.
Now Rota, every time
the ship went by there and had any shelves,
they fired them and planes
from Guam that flew to Japan and back and all that,
when they came back and had any bombs,
I think they dropped them on it.
We were on the southern end of Tinian.
[Richard Misenhimer] Now, were the airfields being built while you were there?
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] Were there any B-29s there yet?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, the B-29s came in while we were on
Tinian and partnered with them over there in Saipan.
[Richard Misenhimer] And you were there about six weeks on Tinian?
[Chris Walker] I don't know how long,
it seemed like it must have
been longer than that on Tinian.
[Richard Misenhimer] Then you left north to Saipan?
[Chris Walker] Yeah. We left Tinian to go to
Saipan to really get with a division to train,
to go into Okinawa.
[Richard Misenhimer] In Tinian, were you just one regiment or one battalion?
[Chris Walker] It was just one battalion.
[Richard Misenhimer] Where did you live in on Tinian?
[Chris Walker] Tents.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay.
[Chris Walker] Hurricanes and all.
[Richard Misenhimer] Hurricanes and all.
You had any typhoons while you were there?
[Chris Walker] We had some that approached us,
but none that ever blew over,
it's one of the dread times.
[Richard Misenhimer] Were there rains out over there?
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] When you were there, was Tinian pretty much bare,
or a lot of trees, or what was it like?
[Chris Walker] There weren't many trees over there, it was bare.
They had fought from one end of that to the other end,
just like they had Saipan
and wasn't much vegetation there.
[Richard Misenhimer] It was very primitive while you were still there?
[Chris Walker] Yeah. It was pretty warm and clear.
Our trail didn't get there while
the flame thrower was there.
That flame thrower was
the most wicked weapon we ever had.
[Richard Misenhimer] In your training on Tinian,
did you do any assault landings there?
[Chris Walker] No, we didn't. We just
studied or practiced maneuvers and things.
But it just (inaudible) this battalion strength.
[Richard Misenhimer] Then when you got to Saipan,
did you still live in tents again there?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, we had tents.
[Richard Misenhimer] Was your colonel able to get good food there too?
[Chris Walker] No, he didn't. (laughing) (inaudible) got bad,
then we would take the island,
I would say the Marine (inaudible),
and we were still eating daily rations (inaudible),
and we just weren't getting any food at all.
Nobody was. We finally found out what was wrong.
[Richard Misenhimer] What was it?
[Chris Walker] Well, we went to Okinawa.
We were the one that pulled
a fake landing on the southern end.
We were supposed to
go in and we were offloading the reserve,
and after a while we were going to take the island,
excuse me a moment, that correspondent
Ernie Pyle was. (crosstalk)
[Richard Misenhimer] Hiroshima?
[Chris Walker] Hiroshima.
We were supposed to take
that second marine who was supposed to take that.
For some reason, they let the army go in there and
we were offloading reserves and
an army general hits some stack.
(inaudible) they didn't hit it much for
three days because we
pulled them all to the Southern end,
and they went in and they begin to hit a resistance and
an army general called for some more reinforcements.
He made mistakes and (inaudible) sent him some Marines.
(laughing) Admiral Nimitz happened
to be on the receiving on our listening,
and he just told me,
"if you don't want these marines,
I'll send them home", so he sent us home.
I think it was a whole late Marines.
We were doing rations
there and everybody else is just eating raw food.
If it hadn't been for the CBs,
they're trying to help us
and going down and eating with them at times,
I think we wouldn't have made it, but anyhow (noise).
[Richard Misenhimer] This is on Saipan now?
[Chris Walker] On Saipan now, I have to come back from Okinawa.
[Richard Misenhimer] Second time you're in Saipan now?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, second time in Saipan.
I'm waiting to go (laughing), but anyhow,
(noise) we pulled a hunger strike.
I know our first battalion did,
I don't know if anybody else did.
But anyhow, we have no PFC there,
a high-powered lorry,
and that's as far as he wanted to go.
He kept telling the Marines, as long as we do our work,
they can't get us for not eating.
We just weren't hungry.
What was happening the cat fish
loaded up stuff out the backdoor.
We were doing everything and
some stupid little kid, private,
wrote a letter to the Marine Corps commandant
and told him what scoop was,
and the Lieutenant that sent him
this letter just put (inaudible).
(laughing) Well, our company
was situated here and
the Eighth Battalion headquarters was right over here.
It was just a few days until (inaudible) was there,
and I saw him stand a full colonel, a bird colonel.
And I never heard any lieutenant hit a private out.
We lost the Commanding General from the island,
three, four different general
all from there and everything else.
They were talking about,
what we were supposed to have and was
putting it into an officers quarter rooms.
More things straightened out (laughing)
and we began to get food.
But they needed a reinforcement,
so they they sent the eighth regiment back to Okinawa.
We had hit two little island off from Okinawa,
and we went in on to take off the tail end of it.
But I know I've never talked to general,
I'd say general who (inaudible) the colonel (laughing).
He (inaudible), but we
came back and then went back up there too, from Okinawa.
[Richard Misenhimer] Let's go back to it, the first time you're on Saipan.
You were there about how long?
[Chris Walker] I wished I had those notes. I don't know.
Those days and months just run together.
[Richard Misenhimer] On April 1st of '45 was the invasion of Okinawa?
[Chris Walker] Yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] Easter Sunday.
[Chris Walker] We left there about two or three weeks early.
[Richard Misenhimer] To go up there.
[Chris Walker] To go up there. We would pull maneuvers and
got to Hagen boats and all kinds of maneuvers.
I think I was in the water about three weeks.
[Richard Misenhimer] What kind of ships were you going up there?
[Chris Walker] We went on to attack personnel.
[Richard Misenhimer] APA?
[Chris Walker] APA, yeah.
[Richard Misenhimer] Then when you got there,
you go down the cargo (inaudible) on
the side into the LCVPs, taking the boats?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, that's a thrill I took. (laughing)
Especially in bad weather in which we was practicing in.
[Richard Misenhimer] Did you see anybody fall off of those,
the end of the (inaudible)
[Chris Walker] No, nobody got hurt.
It's amazing what we did,
and so few people got hurt. Here we were.
[Richard Misenhimer] Then you went up to Okinawa.
You were up there on the first stand, right?
[Chris Walker] Yes.
[Richard Misenhimer] Okay. But the second division
made a faint for the South? (crosstalk)
[Chris Walker] Yeah. Two days, I believe it was.
We stood in, and they started throwing
artillery and everything else at us,
and we act like it's too hot, and we pull back.
Next day, we did the same thing.
Next they believe we
got in our boats and they could see us
(noise) getting ready for the assault,
and they weren't watching, (laughing)
Watching whatever beach it was.
[Richard Misenhimer] Did you see all the battleship shelling?
[Chris Walker] Yeah. We pulled up a second time.
We went up there in (noise)
these flat bottom LSTs. (laughing)
[Richard Misenhimer] From Saipan?
[Chris Walker] Yeah, from Saipan. He walked
with his knees bent over thigh. (laughing)
[Richard Misenhimer] (crosstalk) That's a long way from Saipan.
[Chris Walker] We pulled right up beside
the Missouri one night also wrap side two from it,
and we were about to lose our teeth being shaken up
with waves and old Missouri is just sitting there.
(laughing) Every time he'd let loose to the valley,
I'd just shake (laughing)
all the faces. All that little ship.
[Richard Misenhimer] Yeah. LSD.
[Chris Walker] But that was three. We went
and took one little island off from there.
The first one. That's the first time I ever,
went out in the front of all those things in Amtrak.
[Richard Misenhimer] You were in Amtrak, well, okay.
[Chris Walker] Of course you're saying is hot.
Six feet tall,
and the door all but about six inches of water.
You go out there and you keep going down and
going down and you can feel
that thing running off in that ramp.
And then you start slowly and just feel like
you're slowly (laughing) sleeping.
You're out there watching it.
Who's out far enough they couldn't
shell us who is watching.
That first-time I think this group had ever
used you told Amtrak
would always use the Hagen and pumps now?
[Richard Misenhimer] Did they come off with LTV P or a little bigger boat?
[Chris Walker] LSD, I believe the LST-LST tank.
[Richard Misenhimer] That's the bit where it came over on.
Then they put it up there and it came up (crosstalk).
[Chris Walker] We had all of the equipment.
[Richard Misenhimer] Not only the LST, right.
[Chris Walker] So we just ruled that thing
out second time when it's bad because
you can't know what to expect,
but nobody had written one who said
(laughing) I don't know
whether he's in the safe for now,
would still have jump over the side but it
didn't open up in front of him that Higgins boat.
(crosstalk). I think some of those.
[Richard Misenhimer] LSTs?
[Chris Walker] Amtrak's. Let the back
down and you run out the back but there are these we
weren't allowed to sign and they
had tanks that were amphibious.
And I don t think we lost any of those,
but all you could see in them was the turd sticky.
[Richard Misenhimer] When you landed on these small islands
, was there much resistance?
[Chris Walker] There was very little resistance on either one of them.
On one of them, There wasn't on the first one,
there was no second one that wasn't.
[Richard Misenhimer] In the lateral canal itself?
[Chris Walker] Yes. We landed there.
At about watch beach and got our equipment all unloaded,
went to the front lines.
[Richard Misenhimer] About when did you land there?
[Chris Walker] I could tell you, but he did
this battle about a week before the island was secure.
[Richard Misenhimer] So there had been fighting there for quite a while?
[Chris Walker] Been fighting for quite a while.
(noise) we'd be in a fresh troops.
hit the lines and I think it was in
two or three days we reached in the Island,
which was a military blunder
because we had tired Marines
over here and a tired army over
here and we went through them with about
3,400 yard swath through
there and nurses checked over here. (laughing)
[Richard Misenhimer] On your flanks.
[Chris Walker] On both sides and we were kept pretty
thin but the Colonel,
he wanted to be the first to the end.
[Richard Misenhimer] Now, how much resistance
is you have a one through there.
[Chris Walker] At first we had quite a lot.
Where we started we were replacing,
I forgot what marine unit.
But there was a steep incline,
a flat place, and another steep incline.
Best time to remember is
about a 102 feet up and then about
a 100 feet and then cliffs and
back over and there was a road cut up there.
And this marine unit,
it got on that flat spot and got caught.
They sent tanks up and I can't remember the Japs.
They did not have
a little one-on-one anti-tank gun whenever
there was (inaudible) and they were really good at it.
And they can knock a tank out real quick.
[Richard Misenhimer] With the Sherman tank or what kind of tanks?
[Chris Walker] No. I don't think we had Sherman.
[Richard Misenhimer] Three Stewart. Smaller?
[Chris Walker] They were smaller compared
to what we've got now. They look like babies.
But we got ready to
go up early one morning and in
the Colonel said we're not stopping,
we are going to the top.
At night, he told us that that situation up,
we got to go into like lethal men
late one afternoon. We got there late one.
He said, early morning,
we're going to hit that, and
then said there's no stopping.
We stopped we'd have the same thing.
No, I don't have that many-many hit,
there very few and will not heal.
After we went to the top
and our group hit it, we went up.
We went to the top. We fought against them.
(noise) We were first troops fighting against them.
[Richard Misenhimer] The Japanese.
[Chris Walker] Japanese they were tired.
Battle weary and everything else.
But when we secure that part of
it and the other Marines came up,
and the other army came up.
[Richard Misenhimer] What were you carrying?
What weapon were you carrying at that point?
[Chris Walker] I've carried tanks of sub-machine guns.
[Richard Misenhimer] And are you in a squad?
[Chris Walker] I still not. Maintenance company.
[Richard Misenhimer] Maintenance company, yeah (laughing)
[Chris Walker] I was a Colonel bodyguard during that campaign.
He was after the Congressional Medal of Honor.
When he was GI.
GI could be one.
He is the battalion hitter.